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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25260085">Reunion</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney'>MaddieandChimney</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>9-1-1 (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, TW: Domestic Violence, tw: injury</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 06:40:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,076</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25260085</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After everything that happened at Big Bear, Chimney can't wait to see Maddie.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Madney One-Shots</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Reunion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Please note Maddie's injuries are worse than in canon for this one-shot.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Every passing second he’s in a hospital bed knowing she’s in another hospital is excruciating. Time moves slowly, all he can think about is the fact she could have died. Hen likes to remind him all too often that he could have died, too. But really, he thinks, it’s what he deserved – falling for the act, so desperate for a life and a friend outside of the one-eighteen that he clung to a friendship that never existed.</p><p>He felt sick all the time, knowing he had drinks with the man who had screamed in Maddie’s face, he’d played snooker with the man who had hit her, he had laughed and joked with the man who had hurt in every way possible for sixteen years of her life. He had <em>spoken</em> about Maddie to him, he had let him tell jokes at her expense, he had…</p><p>He just felt so sick all the damn time, so angry at himself, at Doug, at the world. He’d asked Athena to be honest with him, to tell him exactly what state they had Maddie in. Being stabbed had been less painful than hearing every description of the pain she must have gone through. Doug had beaten her so hard he’d broken bones, multiple bones. He’d stabbed her, probably with the same knife he used to stab him, and for some reason that hurt even more. Wishing he could have seen it coming, knowing if only he had stopped him somehow, then she’d be okay.</p><p>Athena didn’t want to tell him but he had begged for the truth, pleaded with her to be honest with him, promising he could take it. Externally, he tried to hold himself strong, but internally, he was destroyed. They’d lost her, Maddie’s heart had stopped in the ambulance, the adrenaline that had been rushing through her body as she fought for her life… for a minute, the world had been without Maddie Buckley and Chimney knows that minute was empty and dark. She had needed surgery, Buck hadn’t left her side since, stuck hours away from home, just the two of them.</p><p>Chimney tries, he tries so hard to follow the doctors advice because he knows he’s no good to anyone, especially not Maddie if he isn’t okay. She’s been in a hospital hours away for three days before he can’t take it anymore. A patient man would have waited, he knows that, perhaps would have demanded a transfer. Instead, he signs himself out against medical advice, ignores the disapproving looks Hen and Bobby give him when he tells them what he’s done. Hen is the one who drives him to Maddie, even if she doesn’t agree with what he’s done, she knows all he needs is to see her.</p><p>None of it feels real, it’ll never feel real until he can touch her, see and hear her breathing. Everyone keeps promising him that she’s okay, that she’s going to pull through and maybe she will, maybe they’re not lying and maybe she’ll be back home before any of them know it. But mentally? It’s Maddie, someone died in front of her and then she had to kill the man she once loved in an attempt to fight for her own life.</p><p>Maddie, his sweet, caring, loving Maddie who only ever wanted to help the people around her… mentally, she’s not going to be okay and he wants to be there for every moment if she’ll have him.</p><p>Hen warns him that it won’t be easy. Athena had warned him that seeing her in person isn’t going to be easy. Even Buck tries to tell him that she looks terrible in his usual blunt, slightly thoughtless way. None of it prepares him for what he sees, how tiny she looks in the hospital bed, how she’s barely recognisable beneath the healing bruises and cuts that litter her face. For a moment, all he can think about is Jason… Doug… hitting her over and over again.</p><p>Because he’d given him an in.</p><p>He gulps down the lump in his throat, one hand on his side as he slowly walks to the side of the bed. She’s asleep, and for a moment, he’s thankful. He wants to see her eyes more than he’s ever wanted anything, he wants to hear her say something. The tears fall heavily down his face, sinking down onto the chair that he imagines Buck usually sits in, before his hand reaches for hers.</p><p>“I-I’m sorry…” Sobs wrack his body, leaning down only to press his forehead against their clasped hands, each movement causing a throbbing pain in his still healing wounds. “I’m so sorry, I’m just… so, so sorry. You’re… I-I wish… I wish I had known, I wish I could change… I should have known better, you deserve better.” Each word is gasped out, more painful than the last but he has to get it out.</p><p>At least until her thumb brushes along his skin, forcing his head to snap up to look at her, “I’m okay.” She whispers, her voice raspy and quiet, but her eyes are on his and he’s never felt so relieved to just know she’s breathing, she’s okay. As okay as she can be.</p><p>“I-I thought… I really thought…”</p><p>“Me too.” The hand in his tightens, and she’s <em>smiling</em> at him as though she’s happy to see him, even relieved and he doesn’t understand why. It was inherently selfish for him to travel to see her, just so he could know she was okay, to ease at least some of his own pain. But yet, she’s happy to see him. “We’re okay.” She whispers, eyes falling to a close as she struggles against the need to fall asleep, “D-don’t leave… hold me?”</p><p>He can’t hide the shock, glad her eyes are closed so she doesn’t see the way his eyes widen and his breath hitches, “H-hold you?” The nod seems a struggle for her, so he doesn’t hesitate, careful of the wires when he slips into the bed next to her. It’s natural, almost instinct for her head to fall onto his chest and his arm to wrap around her shoulders. Her body is tight against his, he can feel the way she’s breathing, the warmth of her body against his.</p><p>The guilt doesn’t ease, he’s not sure it ever will but she’s there, and she wants him there… that’s enough, for now. Holding her is enough.</p>
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